SOITEC PART OF SOLAR PROJECT

San Diego factory will make modules for plant at Fort Irwin in desert

French semiconductor maker Soitec will provide solar modules from its San Diego factory to build a demonstration-scale power plant for the U.S. military at Fort Irwin in the Mojave Desert, the company announced Wednesday.

The project is part of a broader Defense Department evaluation of innovative energy technologies to develop more secure power supplies, reduce its facility costs and meet its goals for using more renewable energy.

Fort Irwin, about 130 miles northeast of Los Angeles, is home to the National Training Center, which provides training in urban warfare.

Construction of the 1 megawatt solar plant on the base, capable of powering hundreds of homes by day, is scheduled for completion in 2014.

Soitec opened a solar factory in Rancho Bernardo last year with the help of a $25 million grant from the Department of Energy and long-term power purchase contracts with San Diego Gas & Electric.

Soitec’s concentrated photovoltaic solar technology uses a lens to focus sunlight on a circular, multi-junction cell no bigger than a ladybug to generate electricity. The lenses and cells are bundled into panels the size of a double garage door, then mounted on dual-axis trackers that trace the sun across the sky.

SDG&E said it values the technology’s efficiency and steady output from sunup to sundown.